In EuroTrash Monday we have a full round-up of a top weekend of action at the World Championships. Every race had excitement and the finalé on Sunday was made of the stuff of legend. All the results plus race comments and loads of video to start your week, along with all the other news, of course. Cappuccino per tutti?

TOP STORY: Politics or Great Racing?
I thought of opening with the election of Brian Cookson as the new President of the UCI and the vote against Pat McQuaid. Will things be different, will there be any change or as some suggest; Cookson is a front for the Russian Igor Makarov. Igor Makarov has a personal net worth of $1.9 billion, so he’s not in cycling for the money. If you have listened to any Dutch journalist since 2005, when McQuaid was elected, Hein Verbruggen has always been in charge.

Anyhow, now that is out the way: How good were the World championships this year? Fantastic I would say. Every race was exciting, from the Juniors to the Pro’s, the time trials and especially the road races. Was it the toughness of the course or the strength of the riders, probably a mix of both.

Let’s just sit back and enjoy the action…on the road, not at the UCI!

The UCI Vote:

World Road Championship’s 2013

World Men Road Race Championship
Joaquim Rodriguez could smell the Rainbow jersey as he entered the last 2 kilometres of one of the wettest and hardest World road championships in many a year. He had one big problem; Rui Costa of Portugal. Costa had managed to bridge up to Rodriguez and Nibali with Alejandro Valverde. Rodriguez made a second attack and Nibali dragged the others back, then with a bit of foxing ‘Purito’ went again just after the last short climb and looked like he would have his dream. Valverde wouldn’t chase and Nibali had done too much, so Costa jumped and struggled through the pain barrier to get on the wheel of Rodriguez. Rodriguez urged him to come through, but Costa waited for the sprint and gave it everything he had left in his body, which was more than the ever attacking ‘Purito’ had and the Portuguese captured the Rainbow jersey by a bike length at the line.

The 272.26 kilometre race was run off in dreadful weather which was seen by the list of abandonments. The break of the day included: Bartosz Huzarski (Poland), Jan Barta (Czech Republic), Matthias Brändle (Austria), Yonder Godoy (Venezuela) and Rafaâ Chtioui (Tunisia). Back in the bunch the GB team had Mark Cavendish to ride on the front until the start of the finishing circuit where Luke Rowe took over. In the end no members of the GB team finished. The escape had a 9 minute lead at one point, but by lap 5 there was only two up front; the NetApp-Endura pair of Huzarski and Barta and the Italian led bunch were closing.

On lap 6 the action started with attacks from Priedler (Austria) and Kelderman (Holland), but the most dangerous move came from Italy’s Giovanni Visconti who crossed to the earlier attacker Cyril Gautier (France) for the four to get together. Huzarski dropped Barta and Visconti left his group to catch Huzarski on the climb to Salviati and the two had 1:48 on the peloton with Belgium at the helm.

As the rain started to ease Italian hope; Vincenzo Nibali crashed ripping his shorts, he managed to rejoin the peloton, but must have used a lot of energy in the chase.

Visconti and Huzarski were caught before the top of the Fiesole climb and 40 riders were together to fight out the final lap.

After a flurry of attacks; Joaquim Rodriguez put in a big dig, Vincenzo Nibali chased with Rui Costa and Alejandro Valverde on his tail, Colombia’s Rigoberto Urán was also making the bridge when he lost it on the descent of the Fiesole, hitting the grass bank and turning a couple of summersaults.

This was the four who would be fighting for the medals and Rui Costa came out the better man from the battle.

Rui Costa had given Portugal its first ever World Road Race Championship, the closest any Portuguese rider had got to this kind of success would be Sérgio Paulinho’s second place in the Athens Olympic road race back in 2004. It was a very emotional podium as second placed Joaquim Rodriguez could not hold back the disappointment of yet another loss and the Catalan could not hold back the tears, and then as the Portuguese anthem played it was the turn of 26 year old Rui Albert Faria da Costa to show his emotions. Next year Costa will be wearing the Rainbow jersey with Lampre-Merida written on it as he has already signed a contract with the Italian team, leaving Movistar after signing with previous sponsor Caisse d’Epargne in 2009.

Race Comments:
The 2013 World Road Race Champion Rui Costa: “Wearing this jersey was a goal during my entire career and I can’t still believe it. I had this race marked down on my season schedule. The World Championships are always sort of a lottery, difficult to win. It’s hard, even more in a race like this, with soaking rain, especially in the first three hours. You always go through ups and downs in such courses; at some points I didn’t feel well, but my feelings in the last lap were better. I knew I had to stay focused into the Fiesole climb and sticked to the decisive move. I also knew I’d be struggling at Via Salviati, and knew where I had to attack to chase Joaquim down and going for the sprint with him. I was thinking the same as everyone about these Worlds – I mean, Italy leading the race, the Spaniards closing the gaps on Nibali – so I took a choice about how I should have ridden before the race. But I know Purito well, and I never thought I could beat him. Now it’s time to finish this season; I will have time to enjoy and taste this victory after that.”

Silver Medal winner Joaquim Rodriguez: “We can run through a million scenarios, but the only thing that counts is if you win, and I didn’t win today. Alejandro and I both wanted to win. We already have big wins in our palmares but are missing the world championships. We are missing something, maybe luck, but it’s been impossible to win. I knew I had to take some risks in the finale. Vincenzo is very good on the descents, but he already crashed, so maybe he was nervous. I could see that he was not the same Nibali we typically see on the descents. I don’t like to take advantage on the descents, but the race was unfolding like this, and with the wet roads, I could open a gap.” As to the winner Rui Coasta: “I was trying to make him nervous, but it was impossible. He has too much self confidence. I tried to get him in front of me, but he was very sure of himself and he knows me too well, so it was impossible to win.”

Alejandro Valverde (Bronze Medal): “I can’t complain: I have snatched five medals, and even though the gold didn’t come today, we’ll do our best to contest it in the next few years. Purito rode perfectly, and there was some moment when I thought he could really win. At the end, Rui launched a strong attack. I didn’t rule out Rui’s chances – I knew he was as dangerous as Nibali and I shouldn’t be leaving him go ahead, but after 270k, the legs did not respond so well, and those meters he took into the turn… I couldn’t close it. I should have been there, but I couldn’t. Taking second and third is something to be happy about, and we must congratulate him – he was the best today.”

Fourth placed Vincenzo Nibali: “After I crashed earlier, I was a bit scared. I could feel that my bike was slipping and I was scared of crashing again. I didn’t want to take any risks and so couldn’t hold Rodriguez’s wheel. I made a huge effort to get back on after crashing. My legs were hurting, I managed to get back because my form is good but I couldn’t do any better than I did.” What about the chase? “I knew Valverde wouldn’t help out but Costa only came past me briefly to do a bit and then to attack. I thought Valverde would go after him but he didn’t. I tried to do a good sprint but Valverde even changed direction and pushed me way over to the right.” How did he crash? “I took the same line but my front wheel blocked and I slipped out. When I crashed I thought I’d blown it because I was feeling good but then I was in pain. The pain eased as I pedalled and I tried to do a great race but there was nothing else I could do.”

World Women Road Race ChampionshipRace Report by Jordan Cheyne: While the Junior Men’s race provided a captivating undercard, the women’s race was certainly the day’s main event. However if the thick crowds lining the course expected to greet a large field of riders early in the race they were in for a surprise. Team USA, stacked with big climbing engines like Carmen Small, Kristin McGrath, Evelyn Stevens and Giro d’Itialia Donne winner Mara Abbot were on a mission to make the race hard from the start and they were achieving their objective. At least a dozen women were dropped from the field before it ever reached Florence and after half a lap the lead group was down to just 40 riders with more shooting out the back on each switchback of the Fiesole.

The Italians joined in on the pace making at the front often trading attacks with the American women throughout the first two laps. The pace was too high for anything to stick but the two big blue teams kept at it with the obvious hope of hurting the prohibitive favorite Marianne Vos of the Netherlands.
For those uninitiated with women’s cycling, Marianne Vos is perhaps the greatest female cyclist of all time. She is perhaps the only cyclist in the 40 years to justify comparisons to Eddy Merckx. Just ask any female racer and I am sure she would tell you; Vos really is modern day Cannibal.

After two laps at a hellish pace it was Australia’s Tiffany Cromwell who drew first blood with a harrowing attack on the descent from Fiesole. Although she was promptly caught, Cromwell’s move seemed to break the seal on the race. It was time for the favourites to play their cards.

On the 4th ascent of the Fiesole the Americans made their bid to get rid of Vos with Mara Abbot and Evelyn Stevens attempting a 1-2 punch on the lower slopes. The move succeeded in thinning the group to just 8 riders including Stevens, Emma Johansson of Sweden and a trio of Italians. To everyone’s dismay however, the group also contained an unfazed Marianne Vos and her teammate Anna van der Breggen who drove the pace. It was now Vos’s race to lose and the escapees all knew it. Canada’s last surviving woman Karol-Ann Canuel fell off the pace at this point but found a group and finished a respectable 33rd on the day.

The Italians attacked hard on the Via Salviati with 19 year-old Rosella Ratto leading the charge but the group came back together over the top. Five km later on the final ascent of the Fiesole, Ratto and her teammates Gudzero and Longo Borghini were hammering away again, desperately trying to steal the day. Vos looked unfazed and almost cold blooded as she squashed the attacks and the group of 10 headed into the final 600m climb altogether.

As the gradient kicked up to over 20% Stevens led out with an attack to the right which van der Breggan smoothly covered with Vos on her wheel. Seconds later Vos launched and immediately broke free of pursuers Johansson and Ratto. Vos only continued to accelerate up the climb as she poured every watt of power she had into the pedals. She crossed the top with just 5 seconds but it was always going to be enough as Ratto and Johansson failed to make any group up any ground on the technical descent. As her two pursuers prepared to sprint for silver Vos finished off her masterful move and cruised in for a classic solo victory. Emma Johansson bested young Rosella Ratto in the sprint for silver.

As to the US team split the race early: “They started already at beginning of the circuit, but then we knew this was going to be a hard five laps,” said the champion Marianne Vos. “But it was a really good race from the Dutch team. They gave me the opportunity to keep us as quiet as possible in the bunch until the last lap. Of course it’s great to defend the title. They say always it’s hard to win one, but to do it two in a row it’s even more difficult. It was especially with such strong competition, the Italians were very strong today, they made it a tough race.”

World Men U23 Road Race Championship
Bostner (Slovenia) and Raim (Estonia) built up a lead of 42 seconds as they were about halfway to the City of Firenze with Sipos of Rumania trying to cross to them. Teshome (Eritrea) and Shumov (Belarus) caught Sipos and then they were joined by Flaksis (Latvia), eventually the six riders got together. Behind them the peloton was attacking each other without a concerted effort to bring the break back.

The lead dropped and the break was down to 3 riders when they hit lap 5, where Flaksis attacking before the line causing Tehome and Bostner to chase hard to stay with the flying Latvian. Over the line the three had 38 seconds on Gougeard (France) and Mikelj (Slo) with the bunch just behind.

As the French and Slovenian tandem caught the three, Flaksis attacked, but they were all strong enough to stay together. Italy was controlling the peloton as we now had two Slovenians in the break with Gougeard, Flaksis and Teshome. Gougeard put the pressure on and only Teshome could stay with him on the climb to Fiesole. Next to attack the bunch was Chevrier of France, he was joined by Nathan Brown. The first two crossed the summit with Brown and Chevrier at 9 seconds and the bunch at 20.

On the decent the four were together; Gougeard & Chevrier (France), Brown (USA) and the incredible Teshome (Eritrea) holding on. Up the steep climb and the race was together again thanks to the Australian team. Dassonville was the next Frenchman to try his luck on the decent into Firenze, he was chased by Sutterlin of Germany, Van Baarle of Holland and Ludvigson of Sweden, they were together as they crossed the line 46 seconds before the bunch with 2 laps to go.

Spain and Kazakhstan led the chase as the Italians disappeared from the driving seat. Ludvigson was in trouble in the break as Dassonville up’s the pace, Van Baarle closed the Frenchman down as did Sutterlin, but the big Swede was lost. Over the top Van Baarle and Dassonville had the lead, Sutterlin at 3 seconds and the bunch splintering at 20 seconds. Sutterlin got back down on the other side. Another French rider, Alaphilippe, shot out of the bunch to drop like a stone to join the other three.

On the short climb; Alaphilippe attacked and the others sat up. The front of the bunch had the Yates brothers of Britain with a mix of other nations on the front. Up to the finish line to start the last lap, Alaphilippe was on his own until 2012 Junior World Champion Mohoric of Slovenia crossed over to him, with what was left of the bunch behind at 33 seconds

Alaphilippe and Mohorik started the last climb to Fiesole with a lead of 28 seconds. Meintjes of South Africa caught and passed Alaphilippe and closed on Mohorik at the top, with Brown (USA) third over the line at the head of the shattered bunch.

Mohoric blasted down the hill dropping the South African and looked good for the win with 6 kilometres to go. On the Salviati the Slovenian was suffering, but he had 8 seconds on Meintjens and the chasers at 20. Crouched over the bars and pedalling at the same time the Slovenian was holding the gap into the last 3 kilometres. Up the little rise he sprinted full out and into the twisty streets to the finish.

Matej Mohoric passed under the 1K banner with enough of a lead to start to believe he could do it, in a TT position he powered towards the line for his second Rainbow Jersey in two years. Holding his head in disbelief the tall Slovenian eased his way across the line with Louis Meintjens still alone just behind him; Sondre Engers (Norway) took third from the bunch.

Matej Mohoric will be riding for Cannondale next year said at the finish: “My time trial wasn’t so good, so I didn’t know what to expect. I knew my legs were good, but I still don’t believe what has happened.”

World Junior Men Road Race Championship
Superstar of the future; Mathieu van der Poel of Holland added the Junior World road championship to his cyclo-cross title with a phenomenal attack on the last climb of the day. The son of Adri van der Poel and grandson of Raymond Poulidor soloed to victory in Firenze.

At the start of the last lap; there were only 25 riders in contention and there was no controlling of the pace from strong teams. It was every man for himself, with an unusual diversity of nations including Albania, Brazil, Monaco and Belarus all represented in the lead selection.

Over the top of the final climb to Fiesole, Frank Bonnamour (France) had a slight lead on the others and van der Poel crossed to him on the descent. The two riders fought hard to keep the chasers at bay, but on the climb up to Salviati it looked all over. As van der Poel saw his day might be over; he attacked and dropped like a stone towards the finish with enough time to sort out his jersey and wave the flag of Holland before crossing the line.

“My attack was not prepared but I felt it was the moment to go. My dad gives me some advice but then I’m the one who has to race.” He added: “The race was long at 140km and so I opted to wait till the end. It was a technical descent, so I was able to reach the Frenchman on the descent and then get away.” As to his immediate future: “I enjoy cyclo-cross more than road races so I’m going to focus on that for now but I will do some road races too. I’ve got a team already. Boom and Stybar did cyclo-cross before switching to the road and they’re idols for me, so they prove you don’t have to make the change right now. There’s time.”

World Junior Women Road Race Championship
The Junior Women road race over 82.8 kilometres was won by the Dane Amalie Dideriksen who got the better of her break away companions in the sprint. Anastasia Iakovenko (Russia) took the Silver medal and Olena Demydova (Ukraine) the Bronze. The three had escaped with Jessenia Meneses Gonzalez (Colombia) and Anna Knauer (Germany), they had a lead of nearly 3 minutes at the end of the third lap. Anna Knauer was dropped on the climb to Fiesole on the last lap as a group of 20 riders chased hard behind. When they hit the final steep climb of the Salviati, the Colombian Jessenia Meneses Gonzalez had mechanical problems and the other three rode away for the medals.

In the sprint Olena Demydova had been in trouble and was first to jump, but Amalie Dideriksen came through in the last 100 metres for the Rainbow Jersey ahead of Anastasia Iakoyeno with Demydova in Bronze.

Durbridge and Tuft covered the 54.5km course in 1:04:10, 1’20 ahead of Hepburn and Mouris. They stopped the clock 37” quicker than the long-standing course record of 1:04:47 set by Jens Voigt and Chris Boardman in 1999, riding together for what was then Crédit Agricole.

“To finish up the time trial season and have it all come together like this is really special,” said Durbridge. “We missed out on the goal medal at Worlds [in the team time trial] by less than a second, so it’s a great feeling for us to get the record that’s been standing for 14 years. I’ve done a lot of training and racing with Svein this year. It’s pretty special to share this moment with him.

A flat first half of the course gives way to rollers in the second half of the race. Last year, Durbridge and Tuft went out hard and hoped to hang on for the finish. They employed a more conservative strategy to the opening kilometres this year.

“We went out really hard last year,” said Durbridge. “I ran out of legs toward the end and Svein carried us to the finish. This year, I tried to control myself more and ride a little bit more evenly.”

“When it gets hard toward the finish, good legs are needed all the way to the line,” Durbridge continued. “We learned from our mistakes and didn’t go out as hard so that we could hold our pace until the end.”

Although Durbridge, Tuft, Hepburn and Mouris did not do any specific training for the two-man event, all four riders were part of ORICA-GreenEDGE’s silver medal ride at the team time trial. They worked together as a group of six in the three weeks leading up to the World Championships.

“When you do a three week team time trial training camp leading into worlds, there’s not much else that needs to be done,” explained Durbridge. “Our training doesn’t need to get any more specific than that. I think we did one ride together last week and then rocked up today ready to race.”

Tuft’s season ends in France while Durbridge looks ahead to Il Lombardia and Tour of Beijing to close out his second year in the professional ranks.
“It was definitely the goal to break the record today,” said Durbridge. “It’s a great way to finish off things. We knew we could have a better ride than we did last year, and we came out here and did exactly that.”

“Heppy and Jens did a good ride, too,” Durbridge added. “They rode a similar time to what we did last year – a little faster, actually. It shows we’re all on good form coming off the World Championships. I think we’re all happy to run first and, and it’s nice to get one up on Omega, who came in third.”

Hepburn echoed Durbridge’s sentiments.
“Jens and I were super happy with our ride today,” Hepburn said. “The time we did was around the mark that normally wins this race but Durbo and Svein were on an absolute blinder today. We’re in good spirits running one-two.”Thanks to Orica-GreenEdge for the race info.

Tiernan-Locke’s Irregular Blood Values
Sky team’s Jonathan Tiernan-Locke has been asked by the UCI to explain his irregular blood values going back to September 2012. In an article in The Sunday Times, Tiernan-Locke has been monitored by the UCI since his win in the 2012 Tour of Britain and based on the values since he started the Biological Passport in 2013, his 2012 is now thought suspect. Tiernan-Locke had a brilliant 2012 season with wins in the Tour Méditerranéen, Tour du Haut Var, Tour Alsace and the Tour of Britain and received his Sky contract on the back of those results. Sky has said: “We have no doubts over his performance, behaviour or tests at Team Sky and understand any anomaly is in readings taken before he joined the team. Team Sky has tried to respect what should be a confidential process, allowing the rider to explain in private, without prejudice, and the anti-doping authorities to do their valuable job. At this stage in the ongoing process we will not add any further detail.”

Bakelants for Omega Pharma – Quick-Step
After a lot of rumours, in the end Jan Bakelants will be riding for Omega Pharma – Quick-Step next year. The team was going to choose between Bakelants or Thomas De Gendt from Vacansoleil-DCM and in the end they went for the recent winner of the GP de Wallonie on a 1 year contract.

Jan is a perfect addition to our team,” Team Manager Patrick Lefevere said. “For a few years now he has been among the best riders on the circuit and this season he reaffirmed his skills with excellent results, demonstrating performance continuity. We are very pleased with the agreement we reached. Bakelants is a well-rounded rider, one who can shine in the Wallonie Classics and he will also figure as a major player as he hunts for stages in the major tours. He is expected to take top placements in the shorter stage races, too.”

“I am happy and proud to be a part of this team,” said Bakelants. “These past few weeks I’ve been in touch with the team. Here at the World Championships in Florence I had a final meeting with Lefevere and we came to an agreement. OPQS is a great squad with a great attitude, I’m very pleased to be a part of this project. It’s a great step for my career. I see myself as a rider for the hilly races, for the one-day races like the Liege-Bastogne-Liege and as a stage hunter. My goal is to be useful to the squad next year, precisely in those kinds of races.”

Crelan-Euphony to Stop
The mainly cyclo-cross team Crelan-Euphony team will not be seen on the roads after the end of the year due to financial problems. The green and black jersey will still be seen during the winter though, on the backs of Sven Nys and Sven Vanthourenhout. Team DS Jonathan Bulens made an announcement on Twitter “Yes its true! Yes, it’s sad! Yes, we did everything we could! Yes, this is the reality of sport business! No, the show cannot always go on.” Then on the team’s web-site he confirmed the news: “It is impossible to respect the administrative deadlines foreseen by the UCI regulations for a professional continental team. A number of administrative obligations could not be met for September 30 and therefore, the refusal of registration would put both riders and staff in difficulty. Even if we would be able to meet these administrative obligations in a few weeks, I have had enough after 25 years managing a team of professional riders and not wanting to take any financial risk, I decided on no team for 2014.”

No Champion System team in 2014
After three years the Champion System team will stop at the end of 2013. In 2010 it started as a UCI Continental team before stepping up to UCI ProContinental in 2012. The Chinese based team was originally set up to help Asian rider’s progress, which the team was succeeding due to signing some top riders helping the team to receive invitations to bigger races. According to the report in Biciciclismo, so far no reason has been given as to why the team will finish. The plan for the team had been for it to eventually become WorldTour and ride at the top level.

How to Look Good on a Bike
Another great video from Orica-AIS, this time some tips to keep you looking good:

The PEZ NEWSWIRE!
Don’t forget to check the “NEWSWIRE” section, you can find it down the right hand side on the home page, just above the EuroTrash section. The bits of news that missed the EuroTrash deadline are in there, plus any news as-it-happens will be added there too.